High School Senior One of Four Killed in Mecosta Co. Weekend Crashes

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Michael Aguilar (left) and Roman Aguilar-Emmons

GRANDVILLE, Mich. – (May 5, 2014) – Two Kent County school districts are mourning the death of a high school senior who was preparing to graduate in just weeks, one of four people to die in two separate crashes in Mecosta County over the weekend.

Eighteen-year-old Roman Aguilar-Emmons, a senior at Grandville High School, was killed Saturday afternoon in a car crash in Mecosta County. Emergency crews were called to the intersection of 8 Mile Road and Northland Drive in Mecosta Township just after 4:00 p.m. Saturday.

According to the Kent Career Technical Center, Aguilar-Emmons was a dual enrollment student there studying criminal justice. His Facebook page says he was employed by Meijer.

Michigan State Police identified the other passenger killed in that accident as Michael Jonathan Aguilar, 22, of Coopersville.

Grandville High School released the following statement on its Facebook page Monday afternoon:

We received news yesterday morning that one of our seniors, Roman Aguilar-Emmons, was killed in a car crash Saturday afternoon in Mecosta County. Roman has been with us since elementary school, where he was a student at East Elementary. Principal Chris VanderSlice and his teachers at GHS have shared that Roman was respectful, cheerful and well-liked by both his classmates and adults. He was enrolled in KCTC’s criminal justice program. Roman thrived in that program and had plans to attend GRCC next year in order to eventually pursue a career in law enforcement. Our crisis team is at the high school this morning where the news has been announced. We will share more details regarding arrangements when they become available. We’d like to extend our deepest condolences to the family at this time as they mourn the loss of a young man with a very bright future; everyone loved to be around him. Roman will be missed but surely not forgotten.

Eighteen-year-old Roman Aguilar

Over the weekend, FOX 17 reported investigators in Mecosta County determined that a 1997 GMC Jimmy traveling east on 8 Mile Road failed to stop and/or yield at the signed intersection and was struck by a 2005 Ford Ranger Pickup traveling north on Northland Drive.

The GMC was occupied by three individuals. The driver was identified as an 18-year-old man from Wyoming, Mich., who was transported by Mecosta County EMS to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, due to his serious injuries.

The passengers were identified as an 18-year-old Wyoming, Mich. man, and a 22-year-old man from Coopersville, Mich. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Ford Ranger, a 31-year-old man from Cedar Springs, Mich., was transported to Spectrum Health Big Rapids Campus by Mecosta County EMS with non-life threatening injuries.

The condition of the two survivors of the crash is unknown. Police are waiting to release names, pending family notification.

Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Deputies, Mecosta County Advanced Life Support, Mecosta/Austin Fire Rescue, Morley Fire Rescue, and Big Rapids towing.